Uhhh, Santa?

Almost every night after Abbey is safely in bed, Andrew and I like to read up in my bed. This is my sneaky way to get him to talk and snuggle with me. I know he is looking for way to stay up late, and I get my mom/son time.

Last night started like any other night, we made small talk and started reading a book. Somehow we got off topic. Weird, I never get off topic. I mean sometimes I tell storys that may or may not have anything to do with the original topic. Maybe something reminds me of something else and take it from there. One time I told a story start to finish and stayed on topic, although I can't really remember now what that topic was, but I did it. Wait, where am I?

Oh, blog. Hello. He and I were talking about heaven and the sort of things Papa might be doing. That lead to questions about God and Saten and that naturally lead to Santa. Right? No! That never leads to the Santa conversation. The questions about God were hard enough without adding Santa. Andrew heard from some friends at school that Santa was not real. His friend saw his mom and dad putting out presents. Perfect! All of those years waiting for my excited kids to fall asleep to put the presents out, and some other lazy careless parent blows it for everyone.

Andrew said, "Mommy, just tell me the truth. Is Santa real?" Ummm, what about that phone call you get every year, I said. "That was Barry mom." Ummmm, what about those jingle bells we heard out in the backyard last year?, I returned. "The bells I can't explain, but I don't think Santa is real." Ummmm. Smile. Sweat. At this point I'm thinking about Abbey. She is only 5 and just starting to really enjoy Santa. I'm OK with letting the cat out of the bag for Andrew, but I don't want it running around the house if you know what I mean.

I went on to tell him true story of St. Nicholas. He was a kind generous man, who we should all try to be like. We told him the whole truth. He stared a blank stare. I asked him if he was disappointed, and he said yes with a little frown. Next, I asked him if he wanted to ask any questions. His next question made me laugh out loud nervously....."If Santa is not real then I have some questions about the Easter bunny."